HUBLI: Colleges in Hubli are motivating their students to get voter identity cards made and exercise their franchise in the May 5 assembly elections.

PC Jabin Science College, JG College of Commerce and Kadasiddeshwar Arts College are among the institutions that have taken the initiative to create awareness among students about their right to vote. Voting is essential, they are being told, to elect a good government.

In response, many students have submitted applications for voter ID cards. Besides, college authorities have asked hostel wardens to make the inmates aware of the importance of participating in the democratic process.

PC Jabin Science College authorities have instructed all students, including the inmates of boys' and girls' hostels, to submit forms to get their voter ID cards. The college had till Wednesday evening collected about 70 application forms from the students. The college has sent these to the Election Commission.

HUBLI: After all his attempts to get a BJP ticket to contest from a constituency of his choice failed, an upset industries minister Murugesh Nirani has decided to quit the party and join the Karnataka Janata Party (KJP).

Nirani, who was wavering on whether to remain in BJP or join KJP, attended a meeting of his supporters in some villages of Jamkhandi assembly segment on Wednesday to send a clear message to BJP leadership and his supporters in KJP. ``Only a formal announcement is pending,'' said sources close to Nirani.

KJP founder and former chief minister BS Yeddyurappa heaved a sigh of relief and he is planning to welcome Nirani into the party. But some KJP leaders have opposed it dubbing Nirani an "opportunist".

In a meeting with chief minister Jagadish Shettar on Tuesday, Nirani had bargained for a ticket to contest from Jamakhandi constituency instead of Bilagi. But the CM made it clear to him that party leadership was against denying a ticket to sitting legislator from Jamkhandi — Srikant Kulkarni — a staunch RSS man.

BANGALORE: The May 5 assembly elections will see cash flow of Rs 6,000-7,000 crore, according to Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR) and Karnataka Election Watch (KEW), organization working on electoral reforms.

"The assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh in 2012 saw flow of Rs 10,000 black money. Karnataka is slowly catching up. This trend is not good for democracy,'' Trilochan Sastry, Harish Narasappa. Kathyaini Chamaraj and Vasudevamurthy of KEW told reporters here on Thursday.

The study conducted by the organization on 24 ministers has shown that the average assets of these ministers was Rs 91 lakh. "The growth in average asset per minister was 665% from 2004 to 2008. Of the 24 analyzed, 18 or 75% cabinet ministers are crorepatis," they said.

According to the study report, Anand Singh from Hampi-Vijayanagara constituency has the highest assets of Rs 88.66 crore among the ministers followed by V Somanna ( who is an MLC) with assets worth Rs 10.99 crore. He is closely followed by Anand Asnotikar with assets worth Rs 10.39 crore. Deputy chief minister R Ashoka stands fourth and he is followed by higher education minister CT Ravi. Varthur R Prakash with assets worth Rs 2 lakh has the lowest assets among all the ministers. The organization claimed that ministers' affidavits with details in the nomination were the source of information for them.

The KEW has not taken ministers S Suresh Kumar, Revunaik Belamagi and Kota Srinivas Poojary into account as they claimed they have not accessed information. Similarly, the organization has left Shobha Karandlaje, CP Yogeshwar, and Narasimha Naik from the list. "We have taken only those who are ministers. A study report on Shobha and others will be released next week," Sastry said.

On the assets of MLAs, 61% or 131 out of the 215 MLAs analyzed are crorepatis in this assembly. Total strength of the assembly is 224. The average asset per MLA Rs 5.98 crore. Priya Krishna of Congress from Govindrajnagar has the highest asset of Rs 767.61 crore. In 2004 assembly the average asset of 186 MLAs out of 224 analysed was Rs 1.29 crore. "There was a growth of 364% increase in average asset of MLAs from 2004 to 2008 assembly elections," they said.

__________________To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. | To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.| To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

New Delhi: The Election Commission on Thursday banned the publication or broadcast of any exit poll during the period of assembly elections in Karnataka.

The EC also prohibited the display of any election matter including results of any opinion poll or any other poll survey, in any electronic media, during the period of 48 hours before end of polling on May 5.

"Election matter has been defined as any matter intended or calculated to influence or affect the result of an election, violation of which under Section 126 of the Representation of People Act, 1951, is punishable with imprisonment up to a period of two years, or with fine or both," the EC said in an order issued today.

Karnataka will go to polls on May 5 to elect its 224- member Assembly and counting of votes will be held on May 8. The tenure of current Karnataka assembly expires on June 3. While 36 constituencies are reserved for SCs, 15 are reserved for STs in the state.

The EC order said TV/Radio channels and cable networks should ensure that the contents of the programmes do not contain any material that may be construed as promoting or prejudicing the prospect of any particular party or candidate.

It said newspapers are not expected to indulge in unhealthy election campaigns or exaggerated reports about any candidate or party or incident during the elections.

It also clarified that election campaign along communal or caste lines is banned under the election rules.

The order said the Press is not expected to indulge in canvassing of a particular candidate or party and will not accept or publish any advertisement at the cost of public exchequer regarding achievements of a party or government in power.

__________________To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. | To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.| To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

The ambit of the call centre — originally set up to receive complaints from citizens on violations of model code of conduct — has be expanded to handle queries regarding revision of electoral roll. The number 1077 works for Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts.

The district administration has deputed five persons at the call centre, which will now answer calls round the clock.

Raghavendra must take active part in BJP: Manjunath
By Express News Service - SHIMOGA 01st April 2013 09:44 AM
Rajya Sabha MP Ayanur Manjunath asked sitting MP B Y Raghavendra to decide his political move and take active part in the BJP.

He inaugurated a workshop organised for party workers on the premises of the city BJP office on Sunday. “Raghvendra is in a state of quandary.

He neither identifies himself with the KJP nor the BJP. Being a young politician, who has a bright future, he should identify himself with national parties for recognition. Raghavendra should decide either to continue with the BJP or resign and join the KJP,” Ayanur Manjunath said.

He ridiculed Yeddyurappa for not paying attention to his son. “Yeddyurappa will not ask him to resign as he is aware of his status after leaving BJP. He knows that his son cannot win the next Parliamentary elections,” he said.

‘Caste politics not BJP agenda'

The BJP will keep away from both money and caste politics in the upcoming Assembly polls as per the advice Sirigere Seer Shivamurthy Shivacharya, said Manjunath.

He said that about 15 management committees will be constituted to overlook the election strategy in the district. The committees will work on identifying the new party workers , who will campaig for the candidate.

However, he said that though the though the party is divided the party workers are working in full swing.

Manjunath said that former chief minister and KJP state president BS Yeddyurappa had moved out of the party for individual differences.

“The party never thought of forcing Yeddyurappa to resign but when our central leaders were demanding resignation of congress ministers on the charges of corruption they also sought the resignation Yeddyurappa who was facing corruption charges,” he said.

According to him, the BJP leaders listened to Yeddyurappa and nominated DV Sadananda Gowda as the chief minister. They also sacked Gowda after Yeddyurappa said that he wanted Shettar to be the CM. “But Yeddyurappa was not satisfied with Shettar too. Then, the party leaders thought of taking a stern action against him,” he said.

State released 100 crore for polls, says ECI
By Express News Service - BANGALORE 03rd April 2013 12:32 PM

The Election Commission of India (ECI) has estimated the total government expenditure to conduct the May 5 Assembly polls at about `200 crore.

Karnataka Chief Electoral Officer Anil Kumar Jha told reporters that the state government has so far released `100 crore. The estimated cost for elections per Assembly seat would be around `75 lakh to `80 lakh and a final figure would be known only after conducting the entire poll process, he said. The amount included payment of honorarium to the officials involved in the election process, including that of poll officers.

He also informed that the CECI has released `2.5 lakh to each Assembly constituency to spend on creating awareness among the people on participating in the election process. He said that ECI would treat it as electoral mal-practice if any organisation, whether government or private, does not declare May 5 a holiday under the negotiable instruments Act.

He said that over 3 lakh applications have been received for new registrations into the electoral roll of Bangalore urban district, comprising 28 Assembly seats. “We have approved about 65 per cent of the applications received so far,” he said.

The Bharatiya Janata Party wants to utilise the services of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi in a strategic manner in its campaign for the forthcoming Assembly elections in the State.

According to sources in the BJP, the party has made a request to its Central leadership to depute the services of Mr. Modi for six to seven days to Karnataka for campaign work. His Karnataka visit is likely to commence anytime after April 23.

“There is nothing new about Mr. Modi campaigning in Karnataka as he had devoted five days for campaign for the Assembly polls in 2008 and three days for campaigning in the Lok Sabha polls in 2009. But there is a media hype this time about his campaign following his new status in the national politics,” sources noted.

To encash on his new political status, the BJP State unit too is learnt to have evolved a clear strategy for his campaign in Karnataka.

Accordingly, the party wants to use him to woo youth as well as those who believe in Hindutva ideology especially in the wake of BJP’s image getting sullied among its own supporters following infighting and political instability that affected its government’s functioning.

15 conventions

The BJP wants Mr. Modi to address about 15 conventions in different parts of the State, including one each in all the three Parliamentary constituencies of Bangalore.

“He will campaign in several important districts spread over different parts of the State such as Mysore, Belgaum, Bijapur, Shimoga, etc,” sources noted.

The party wants to choose such vantage locations for his poll conventions where people from different areas can attend the campaign instead of his address getting confined to a limited area.

__________________To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. | To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.| To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

__________________To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. | To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.| To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

Bangalore: Complying with an Election Commission directive, the BJP government in Karnataka on Friday transferred Bangalore Police Commissioner BG Jyothiprakash Mirji ahead of the 5 May Assembly elections.

Home Secretary Raghavendra H Auradkar, who was posted in his place, took over charge on Friday.

Following an ECI directive, the Karnataka govt has transferred Bangalore police chief.
According to sources, the Commission had shot down a panel of three names suggested by the state government and insisted on Auradkar’s appointment.

“This order is issued as per the direction of Election Commission of India for smooth conduct of elections in a free and fair manner,” an official notification said.

Soon after taking charge, Auradkar sought cooperation of all including political parties for “free, fair and smooth” conduct of the polls. “Upholding the rule of law will be the main priority,” he said.

Mirji said he was neither disappointed nor unhappy as being a government servant, he had assumed and relinquished charge many times during his 37 years service.

On Wednesday, the government had transferred several IPS officers citing similar ground.

__________________To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. | To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.| To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

__________________To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. | To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.| To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

__________________To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. | To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.| To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

While the ruling BJP announced its first of 140 candidates in Delhi on Friday ensuring tickets for most of the sitting MLAs and ministers, who have remained loyal to the party, the opposition Congress that is dreaming of coming back to power denied to it since 2004 finally managed to release its first list of 177 candidates. The Congress list also ensures tickets to most of the party’s sitting MLAs.

__________________

Minimum Governance Maximum Marketing
Mantra of Modi Government

To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.